


Good Enough To Eat

by cassandracalls



Category: X-Men (Comicverse)
Genre: Best exes and best X's, F/F, First Dates, Fluff, Soup, The Fall of Emma Frost, You remember that early bit of Jubilee continuity? Because apparently I do, fun little kisses
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-10-31
Updated: 2018-10-31
Packaged: 2019-08-11 14:38:45
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 14
Words: 5,398
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16477436
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/cassandracalls/pseuds/cassandracalls
Summary: On Jubilee and Laura's first date they do not take the kids with them.Just two formerly homeless gals with messed up childhoods starting to be more than pals.(There's also more of a deep dive into Jubilee's continuity that I was expecting, hope I got it right as I haven't read those stories in a very long time.)





	1. Small Package, Tall Order

There was a sigh.

Well, calling it a sigh would be massively underselling what Emma Frost did. The only reason sigh can describe it is because, technically, it was, a sigh. She sighed again (the same caveats apply).

How had it come to this? This, THIS was not her life, this is not what she did.

It was her own fault though, she was very much the author of her own demise in this particular instance.

There was a gurgling laugh from the creature in the room with her.

This was it, it was inescapable, her life was over. 

She was now Emma Frost, babysitter.

She eyed Shogo with suspicion as he giggled.


	2. The Husk of a Relationship

Jubilee did not look in the mirror. That was the main drawback of being a vampire, the lack of a reflection. Well, that, the whole having to drink blood thing and sunlight being deadly but other than those (and maybe a few other things, Jubilee knew she would have totally rocked the grey haired veteran look but, alas, it was not to be) not having a reflection was the main drawback of being a vampire.

She had her phone propped up against the mirror on selfie mode. (She couldn’t see herself in a mirror but the camera on her phone worked fine? Ugh! This mystical nonsense made zero sense.)

 

“I’m so pale.” Jubilee huffed and then rolled her eyes at herself because of course she was pale. She wasn’t exactly catching a lot of sun these days.

 

“Oh shut up, you’re fine.” Paige said, punching her shoulder.

 

“I know I’m  _ fine _ , I’m just really pale to go with it.”

 

“It’s amazing how little being a vampire has changed you.” Paige draped herself over Jubilee’s shoulders as she spoke. Now I’m not going to say that she was deliberately exposing her neck, but she was deliberately exposing her neck.

 

“You know I could just bite you Guthrie.”

 

“But you won’t.” Paige could feel the nervous energy that thrummed through Jubilee’s body and turned the drape into a hug. 

“Chill, Lee. You’re gonna look amazing an’ ya’ll’ll have a magical night an she’ll fall madly in love with you.”

 

Jubilee closed her eyes and let her head fall back to rest against Paige.

“Thanks. Don’t tell anyone, but you’re my favourite ex.”

 

“Ex as in girlfriend or X as in man?”

 

“First one.” Jubilee said swatting at her.

 

“Awww, that’s sweet, but I bet you say that to all the girls.”

 

“Only the ones I’ve dated.”

 

“Can you imagine what would happen if Monet had heard you?” Paige asked.

 

Jubilee’s eyes snapped open in horror.

“oh my god” she whispered.

 

“She’d lecture you for three hours on how you’re wrong.”

 

“This is just typical of you Jubilation.” Jubilee said, doing a good bad impression of Monet. “If you just put a modicum of thought into it you’d know that I am your favourite ex. It’s obvious really.”

She could have gone on but she was too busy giggling. To be fair so was Paige.

 

“Anyway.” Paige wheezed. “Anyway.” She repeated, pulling herself together and moving to grab her makeup bag. “We have other things to do.”

 

“Yeah, yeah.” Jubilee said with a sigh as she sat up straight.

 

Paige took Jubilee’s chin and tilted her head back so that it was in the light.

With a smile she said.

“Let’s get you ready for your date!”


	3. No Good Deed

Shogo hadn’t destroyed anything yet. But that didn’t mean that he wouldn’t. Or that Emma could let her guard down. It didn’t help that Jubilee had forbidden her from using telepathy on him. Not that she could use telepathy in her diamond form, which is how she intended to spend most of the evening. Babies were, after all, tiny little mess factories and diamond washes off easier than skin or hair.

 

“Well, Shogo…” Emma began when she caught a whiff of something unpleasant. Her shoulders sagged and she massaged her perfectly sculpted eyebrows. With a sigh she set to work.

“You know, little creature, the last time I changed someone’s diaper they were older and much much wealthier than you. He also had better personal hygiene. A terminally dull man, kept talking as though I in some way cared about his tedious little job. Now here is a lesson for you Shogo, if you’re only decent attribute is your bank account, and there is absolutely nothing wrong with that, at least have the good grace to realise that.”

 

The task was arduous, but she persevered. It was, all things considered, not the worse thing to have happened to her. It wasn’t as bad as, say, having your mind wiped and lying in a coma for months only to wake up in someone else's body and find out that your students have been murdered. It wasn’t quite as bad as that, but only just. There are times when Emma Frost’s priorities make other people worry.

 

“I suppose you’ll want something to eat now?”

 

Shogo gurgled and made grasping motions with his hands.

 

“This is my own fault you know?” Emma said as she prepared his bottle. “This is what happens when you try to do something nice for a former student. You suffer.”

She picked up Shogo, not in her diamond form because while Emma may not have been the warmest of people but she did know how to care for a baby.

“You set up a date for her with a girl she  _ obviously _ likes and somehow you get saddled with a ball of stink and bodily fluids.”

 

Shogo reached out and put his hands on her face with a happy hiccuping noise.

 

“This is exactly what I mean. Why am I the one who must suffer.”

 

Emma could have gone on. Emma would have gone on were it not for the knock on the door. It kind of stopped her mid flow and killed the whole vibe she was going for.

With a frown on her face and a baby in her arms Emma opened the door.


	4. No Better Than A Poke In The Eye

It’s not that Laura didn’t know what she was doing.

It’s that Laura didn’t know what the  _ hell _ she was doing.

It was a small but important distinction.

Maybe she’d get lucky and someone would use her trigger scent.

NO!

That wouldn’t be lucky, that would be awful, that would, that would…

Before she could spiral too far down into a cycle of recrimination she accidentally stabbed herself in the eye with mascara.

It made eyes water and her mouth curse but her makeup didn’t run. When you do a lot of super-heroics you tend toward the more waterproof stuff.

Dabbing at her eye she gave herself  _ a look _ in the mirror before sighing and shaking her head.

Don’t worry, Laura made sure the mascara was well away from her face first.

Makeup, finish your makeup first, then worry about tonight.


	5. Room for a Small One, and a Smaller One, and a Plastic One?

When Emma opened the door she didn’t cry. She didn’t scream. She didn’t rail against the heavens. She didn’t do any of those things because she was Emma Frost and Emma Frost does not do those things. Although she may have wanted to.

 

“Hiya!” Said her new guest in a cheerful tone.

 

Standing in the doorway with a big, genuine smile on her face was Gabby.

Gabby alone would have been more than enough but she wasn’t alone. Emma’s eyes trailed down the lead she held to see some kind of animal. A wolverine.

Gabby.

Had.

A.

Wolverine.

Because…

Because of course she did.

 

“Gabrielle.” Emma said, her voice clipped and formal and showing no sign of the rising horror she felt within.

 

“Now Jonathan” Gabby said to her wolverine. “This is Emma. Say hello.” Johnathan, being a wolverine, failed to speak. He did snuffle at the floor a little bit though. “Now remember, Laura said you have to be on your best behaviour.” Jonathan didn’t say anything, what with still being, a wolverine. “Fine! Okay! I know she said we both have to be on our best behavior but this is just as much your fault as mine! Oh, and don’t even get me started on you!”

 

That was when Emma noticed the third member of the group. Gabby’s other arm she held a pelican lawn ornament. To be fair to Emma she had been somewhat distracted by the wolverine on a lead. (His name is Jonathan, not just ‘wolverine’ Emma, no need to be rude.)

 

“Laura says thank you.” Gabby said as she walked through the doorway. Jonathan followed obediently and the pelican didn’t do much of anything, much like an inanimate object doesn’t.

 

“She does?” Emma arched an eyebrow to match how arch her voice was when she spoke.

 

“Yup, what with us not being allowed to stay home alone after… The Incident.”

 

“What incident?”

 

“We’re not supposed to talk about… The Incident.”

 

Emma closed the door with a grim understanding. She had faced heroes and villains. Monsters and gods. But this was it, here fate was sealed, her destruction a certainty. A life as glorious as hers undone by a baby, a tween, a wolverine and a plastic pelican.


	6. Unforward Thinking Fashion

“That’s what you’re going with?” Paige asked with only a hint of incredulity in her voice.

 

“What?” Jubilee said as she looked down at her dress and ran her hands down her body, smoothing over the fabric. It was a nice dress, cut just above her knees, short sleeves and a neckline that was neither modest nor immodest.

 

“You do realise we’re not at school anymore?” The dress may also have been the exact same red as their Generation X uniforms.

 

“It’s a classic.”

 

“Oh my god Lee! When did you become a throwback?”

 

“Okay, one.” Jubilee began counting off the points on her fingers. “It’s a classic, not a throwback. Two. I like this colour. Three. I look good in this dress.” She glanced at her lack of reflection. “I think.”

 

“You do.”

 

“Thanks. And four. These are my colours, I feel comfortable and confident in them.”

 

“Your colours?  _ Colours? _ Lee, please, no,please, please tell me you’re not, just, just tell me you’re not.”

 

“Not what?” Jubilee said, acting like she didn’t know what Paige was talking about. She knew.

 

Paige narrowed her eyes at Jubilee before she spoke.

“You are not wearing that jacket!”

 

“That Jacket” Yes, Jubilee did somehow manage to capitalise the word jacket when she spoke. “Has saved the world, been to other planets, traveled through time, I was wearing it when I first met Wolvie, and, ya know, saved his life, it’s helped me meet girls.”

 

“How? They come over and ask why ya ain’t burned it yet?”

 

“I was wearing that jacket when we met.”

 

“Well, yeah.”

 

Jubilee leaned in closer and lowered her voice.

“I was wearing that jackeet the first time we kissed.”

 

Paige kissed the tip of her nose.

“We kissed in spite of that jacket, not because of it.”

 

“You say that now but I remember the way you looked at my jacket.”

 

“It wasn’t the jacket I was looking at.”

 

“And what.” Paige’s cheek got kissed. “Were you.” Paige’s other cheek got kissed. “Looking at?” The tip of Paige’s nose got licked.

 

“GAH!” Paige yelped, pushing Jubilee away from her. “You are such a brat. How is Shogo more mature than you?”


	7. Incidental Dining

“Can we get pizza?” Gabby asked as she played with Shogo.

 

“Pizza?” Emma said abscently.

 

“Shogo really wants pizza.” She put on a very fake man’s voice and said. “Yes, I, the baby Shogo Lee, would very much like pizza.” Gabby coughed and went back to her normal voice. “And I haven’t had pizza since The Incident.”

 

“Was pizza involved in the incident.”

 

“We don’t talk about The Incident.”

 

Emma raised an eyebrow.

 

“It may have been.” Gabby said glumly.

 

Emma sighed.

“I suppose you can have pizza.”

 

“Yesssssssss!” Gabby said, literally jumping with joy. “See Shogo, I told you Emma was amazing!”

 

Shogo gurgled and giggled as he bounced around happily in Gabby’s arms.

 

“Here.” Emma said as she took Shogo and handed Gabby a credit card.

 

It was when her eyes lit up and her smile became fearsomely, terribly, ominously wide that Emma realised she may have made a mistake.


	8. Dress To Express

Laura wasn’t sure she’d made the right choice. True, when she said yes to Gabby picking her outfit Gabby had been overjoyed but.

But it was definitely not something she would have chosen for herself.

But that may have been for the best, left to her own devices she probably would have ended up in jeans and a t-shirt.

But the neckline certainly travelled further, and the hem not as far as she would have preferred.

But it was a nice dress, black with three diagonal slashes that revealed a red, sparkly fabric beneath (no symbolism there or anything).

 

She pulled on her boots, knee high black leather with flames up the side, and laced them up.

 

Laura took one last look at herself in the mirror and sighed.

She wasn’t nervous, not at all, in any way. Nope. Not her. It definitely wouldn’t be easier to have people shooting at her. She popped her claws, just the ones in her hands, a few times reflexively. The snikt-snikt sound helping her to calm down. 

It was time to go.


	9. A Time Of Cheese And Excess

There was pizza. There was a lot of pizza. There was a Gabby unsupervised with a credit card amount of pizza. Which is a lot of pizza. Far more than Emma and Gabby could eat. Far more than Emma and Gabby and Jonathan could eat. Shogo wasn’t much help, after being so insistent that they get pizza all he ate was baby food. Probably because he was a baby. Still, at least he ate something, the pelican didn’t eat anything, it may have had something to do with him being a lawn ornament but he didn’t even try!


	10. Honest Openings

“I didn’t arrive half an hour early.” Jubilee said with as much nonchalance as a person saying ‘I didn’t arrive half an hour early’ unprompted can.

 

“What a coincidence, neither did I.” Laura said as she gave Jubilee a hug. “But I actually didn’t.” She stepped back and put her hands on Jubilee’s shoulder’s. “Sorry I kept you waiting.”

 

“Worth it.” Jubilee tilted her head to the side just enough for her cheek to brush against Laura’s hand. “You look good enough to eat.”

 

Laura gave her shoulders a shove.

“I thought I’d at least get a drink before the first vampire joke.”

 

“I’m unpredictable.” Jubilee said as she linked arms with Laura and they walked into the restaurant.


	11. Lesson Plans

Emma suspected she would never again be free from the stink of pizza, that it had seeped into her pores and would follow her around like a pungent stalker until the day she died.

 

Gabby was far too mobile and energetic for someone who had just eaten her weight in pizza and Shogo was still a baby. Turns out pizza was not the panacea that Emma needed.

At least Gabby’s energy was focused on Shogo which wore him out and he went to sleep surprisingly easy considering it was night and his mom was a vampire.

The upside of this was Emma didn’t have to worry about Shogo.

The downside of this was Emma became Gabby’s sole focus.

The upside of this was Gabby looked at Emma as though she were a little star struck.

 

“Emma?”

 

“Yes?” Emma said, suspicion in her voice.

 

“You know how you’re so badass.”

 

“Yes.”

 

“How’d you do that?”

 

Emma scrutinised Gabby for a moment and found nothing but earnestness.

She smiled. 

Maybe something of value could come out of this nightmare.


	12. Smooth Sailing

They were ordering off different menus. Not everyone knows this but there are certain restaurants in New York, in any big city really, that cater to more rarified pallets. You know how there are vegan and celiac menus, well, this place had a vampire menu as well. Not many places did and most that served vampire food were just ‘here’s some pigs blood’. 

Not great if you’re a Muslim vampire, which is how Jubilee found this place. She was looking for somewhere to go out with Nadia, a friend of hers who was a Muslim and a vampire. 

She was also a single mom, it was easy to see how they connected in the first place.

Actually, she could have probably gotten Nadia to sit for her tonight instead of Emma. But Emma looked so pleased with herself for setting this up and watching the horror very very carefully not show on her face. You wouldn’t see it if you hadn’t been a teenager that was taught by Emma and had done your very best to learn what Emma’s buttons were and how to push them. Luckily Jubilee was a teenager who had been taught by Emma and had done her very best to learn what Emma’s buttons were and how to push them. Huh, maybe she was a little bit of a brat at the time. Okay, to be fair, maybe she was still a little bit of a brat. 

 

Jubilee sipped at her meal through a straw, because this was a date and she was polite. She didn’t need Laura to see her with a blood mustache. That was a level of intimacy that you had to sleep with someone at least twice to get to. Bed hair definitely came before blood mustache.

 

In much the same way Jubilee was using a straw Laura wasn’t using her claws at the table, not that Jubilee had never seen someone called Wolverine use their claws at the table. Logan didn’t always have the best table manners. But unlike Logan, Laura was invested in Jubilee finding her attractive.

 

“...jumped out the window” Laura said “and tried to shoot web.”

Jubilee snorted.

“She dropped like a rock, landed on a car and… are you okay?”

Jubilee was still laughing.

“I… what?...” She put her hand to her upper lip. “Oh no.” and buried her face in her hands. “Oh no no no no. I snorted blood out my nose. I’m on a date and I snorted blood out my nose.

 

“At least you didn’t jump out a window.”

 

Jubilee laughed and lifted her head out of her hands.

“I used to be smooth. I want you to know that. I  _ used  _ to be smooth and not the world's biggest frikkin’ sleep deprived dork.”

 

Laura looked at her and smiled. There was a streak of blood on Jubilee’s forehead from where her finger had rubbed against it. Jubilee had no idea it was there, she was just trying to get the blood off her upper lip.

 

“I don’t believe that.” Laura said. “Beautiful? Yes. Charming? Definitely. But smooth?”

Laura leant in to wipe the blood off Jubilee’s forehead.

“I just can’t see it.”

 

It wasn’t a challenge. It really wasn’t. But Jubilee was Jubilee was Jubilee and she decided it was. Well, not quite. She knew it wasn’t a challenge but. And it was one hell of a but (no, not like that, grow up) anyway, not a challenge, but. But. But if it was it gave her an excuse to do something she wanted to do.

 

Laura was still leaning in, she’d just finished wiping away the blood but hadn’t sat back yet. She was about to but.

Before she could Jubilee leant forward and all of a sudden they were close. So close. The kind of closeness that if it were someone else there would have been talk of feeling heat rising from skin and the tickle of breath. But. But Jubilee was a vampire so there was a lack of body heat to match the lack of breath. So instead of any of that what there was was a kiss.

It was brief and chaste, the barest touching of lips before parting.

Then foreheads resting against each other, eyes open, smiles and just a hint of giddiness.

And just as the moment was about to pass Jubilee pushed forward again. This time it wasn’t brief. Or chaste.

There was more pressure, more passion, more, more everything, just more. Laura could taste the metallic tang of blood on Jubilee’s tongue, could feel a growl reverberating around her throat, could feel a warm wetness between her... fingers?

Jubilee pulled back a little. This really would have been the perfect time for some slight lip biting but when it comes to vampires, much like werewolves, playful biting is not a first date activity. So instead she placed one last kiss on Laura’s lips, a ghost of what was and a promise of what will be, before leaning back in her seat.

Only of of them was left panting for breath, but then only one of them had to breathe. Jubilee was such a cheat.

 

“So,” Jubilee said, a contented smile on her face. “Who was never smooth?”

 

Laura was surprised she could hear anything over the hammering of her own heart as she smiled and took some deep, calming breaths and followed Jubilee’s gaze down to her own hand.

It was in her soup.

 

“Me.” Laura said with a sigh. “It’s me, I have never been smooth.”


	13. Phone Sex

“So I should have sex with them?” Gabby asked.

 

“Certainly not.”  Emma pursed her lips and tilted Gabby’s head back to better see her face. “And at your age, if that is going to work on someone then you’re better off just killing them. Everybody is better off with you just killing them. So, no Gabrielle, you don’t have sex with them. You make them want to have sex with you. Desperately. Let it seep into their pores. Let it hound their every waking moment. They should be half-crazed with their desire for you.”

 

Gabby was hanging off her every word. This was a good thing as far as Emma was concerned. Good for everyone else though?

 

* * *

 

“So, you’re a teenager and you like girls.” Jubilee gestured emphatically as she spoke. It wasn’t smooth, but it was endearing.

 

“I think I can relate.” Laura said before biting through a piece of carrot. She was smiling. She knew she was smiling. She had no idea just how much she was smiling though.

 

“Right, so, you’re a teen and girls, girls are all like yay girls and you end up in this school. The two other girls there (of the five of us) are both frikkin’ amazons compared to you but that doesn’t matter.”

 

“It doesn’t?”

 

“Nope. ‘Cause of the two teachers, one is one of the hottest women in the world who thinks lingere is formal wear and dressing casually means wearing a corset. So, you’re a teenage girl.”

 

“Who likes girls.”

 

“Yeah, who likes girls, and is, ya know, a teenager and this hyper model.”

 

“Hyper model?”

 

“It’s like the next level up from a supermodel.”

 

“Right.” Laura said with a laugh.

 

“So, this hyper model who wonders round looking like she just stepped off the cover of Upper Class Dominatrixes Monthly.”

 

“Is that a real magazine?”

 

“Maybe?” Jubilee threw her hands up as she shrugged. “And to top it off this super hot upper class dom is a telepath so there’s a chance she knows every dirty little thought you’ve had about her.”

 

“And you’re a teenager.”

 

“Exactly! And. You’re. A. Teenager. So those dirty thoughts? They can get pretty damned filthy. And you never know! You just never know! It was hell.”

 

“So you’re saying you had a crush on Emma?”

 

“No, I had a huuuuuuuuuuge crush on Emma. Speaking of.”

 

* * *

 

“So sex, money and fear?” Gabby asked.

 

“Exactly. Any two of those can get you almost anything you want. All three and you are virtually unstoppable. But, in my experience, fear relies on reputation. Money comes and goes but sex.” She shifted her position slightly, altered her demeanour a little and transformed from teacher to Goddess in an instant. In that instant her phone rang. “Sex is always on hand. Hello Jubilee.”

 

“What?” Jubilee tried to form a sentence from the other end of the call. “Wait, what are you, what?” It took her a while. “What are you doing with my son?”

 

“Nothing. Shogo is sleeping, I’m talking to Gabrielle.”

 

“Oh thank god.”

 

Emma could just make out Laura asking what was going on in the background.

 

“She’s teaching Gabby how to control people with sex.”

 

Emma could hear Laura getting louder and insistent about having the phone so she smiled and hung up.

 

* * *

 

Laura starred at the phone in her hand with disbelief.

“She hung up.”

 

“Yeah, that sounds like Emma.” Jubilee said making a just-give-me-back-my-phone-it’ll-be-fine gesture.

 

Laura seemed unconvinced.

“Maybe I should…” She looked like she was about to stand up.

 

“Stop!” Jubilee said in a total mom voice that totally worked. “Look, when I went to Emma things hadn’t been great. I’d been homeless, my parents had been killed, which I got to see later.” Laura gave her a curious look. “Time portal thing, I was sticking out of the TV in the den when they got shot. I then saved the world by showing compassion to a Sentinel. It’s complicated.”

 

“Sounds it.”

 

“Fine, everyone at the table who doesn’t have a complicated childhood please raise your hand. What? No one? No one at all? Shocking.”

 

Laura held out her hands in submission.

“Okay, okay, you win.”

 

She took Laura’s hand, kissed it and then pressed it to her cheek.

“Yeah I do. So, homeless, mutant, orphan, queer, had people try to turn me into a mutate slave, a Brood incubator, held a little girl’s hand and watched a virus from the future kill her.” Jubilee look thoughtful for a moment. “She’s alive again now, and an adult, and kinda hot. It’s weird. She doesn’t remember. Tried to flirt with me once but all I could see was the little girl I watched slip away.”

 

Jubilee went quiet for a moment, lost in a memory that was not pleasant. Laura slipped her hand out of Jubilee’s grip and stroked her cheek.

 

“You okay? Need a moment?”

 

“Nah.” She took a breath. Didn’t need it but she’d been alive for longer than she’d been undead so old habits and all that. “I’m good. You know how I first met Logan?”

 

“Tell me.” Laura had stopped stroking but her hand was still against Jubilee’s cheek, they could both feel the contrast in body temperatures. With her free hand she took a drink.

 

“He was being crucified.” Now I’m not saying Jubilee waited for the perfect moment to say that, but Jubilee waited for the perfect moment to say that.

 

Laura spat her drink out.

“What?” She coughed.

 

“He was being crucified.” Jubilee smirked, happy with the reaction. “So, after a really, really bad day I went through a portal and found myself I didn’t know where, Australia as it turned out. The X-Men’s hide out to be specific, and I did what any self respecting urchin would. I hid and scavenged food until one day they vanished. Mostly.”

 

“What happened to them?”

 

“Do. Not. Ask!”

 

“Okay?”

 

“It’s a whole thing, it really is. So, Logan’s still about, but then it turns out so are the Reavers. A bunch of cyborg skeezoids with a hate for Logan.”

 

“Seezoids?”

 

“What? It’s era appropriate! So, they get him and they nail him up, and he’s up there for days. No food, no water and the sun beating down. And he’s just nailed there with them torturing him for days and days and days until I got him down and hid him and nursed him and scavenged for food, but now with a bunch of murderous Deathlok wannabes tryin’ ta find me. I had a point. What was my point?”

 

“Emma.”

 

“Right, Emma. So all of that, except Ilyana flirting, was before Emma was looking after me. And she did. Look after me, looked after all of us, her and Sean, did a good job.” She took Laura’s hand from her cheek and held it tightly. “Gabby will be fine. Promise.”

 

* * *

 

“Can I do your hair?”

 

“No.”

 

“Oh. Can you do mine?”

 

Emma smiled.

“Yes.”

 

* * *

 

“Come here.” Laura said leaning forward across the table.

 

“And why would I do that?” Jubilee asked being fake coy.

 

“Just do it.”

 

And she did. And they kissed. A sweet, light thing. They bumped foreheads and smiled as they sat back down.

 

“We did not have great childhoods.” Laura said.

 

“We did not.”

 

“Theirs will be better.” Laura lifted her glass as she spoke.

 

“Infinitely.” Jubilee said as their glasses clinked.


	14. Crushed

Emma was running a brush through Gabby’s hair when there was a thud against the wall.

 

“What was that?” Gabby asked, an eagerness to explore in her voice.

 

“Nothing to worry about.” Emma said, continuing to brush.

 

“But what if it is? What if it’s a portal to hell opening up and we’re the only ones that can save the world from a demon invasion?” Energy was building up in her body like she was about to bolt for the door.

 

“Then” Emma said as she placed a steadying hand on Gabby’s shoulder “Jubilee would be annoyed that I left Shogo alone. And it’s not.”

 

“How do you know?”

 

“I’m psychic.” It’s true, she was.

 

“Fine.” Gabby slumped back down.

 

Emma sighed and rolled her eyes.

 

“Very well. When they’re done with what they’re doing out there” She gestured vaguely to the wall. “I’ll show you how control through the thought of sex works. Is that satisfactory?”

  
  


“Yes!”

 

* * *

 

They were outside Emma’s, Laura and Jubilee. It was the benefit of having the same babysitter. They got this one last moment of stolen time together before the night ended.

 

Laura turned to Jubilee, a serene smile on her face.

“Thank you, tonight has been, it’s been perfect.”

 

Jubilee looked at her and didn’t say a word. 

She smiled. It wasn’t a serene smile. 

She held out her hands for Laura, who moved to take them. Before they were hand in hand Jubilee grabbed Laura’s wrists and pushed her back against the wall with a loud thud. 

Laura found her arms pinned above her and Jubilee was close, so so close. There was a distinct lack of personal space going on here. Their lips were so almost touching and Laura knew with certainty they were about to kiss, breath hitched in her throat, her lips parted in anticipation and she wasn’t kissed. At least not in the way she expected. Jubilee dipped her head and kissed along Laura’s neck. That’s kissed, not nibbled, not bit, kissed. Vampires and biting boundaries, remember?

 

“You smell so good.” Laura gasped.

 

“I smell like a corpse.” Jubilee said with a mirthless bleat of laughter.

 

Nope! Laura was not having that! She wrenched her wrists free and pushed Jubilee away, keeping her hands on the other girl’s shoulders.

“No! You smell like you, and you smell a-maze-ing.”

 

Jubilee grinned.

“And you said you weren’t smooth.”

 

They went back to their previous closeness after that. There may have been more kissing. There was certainly no biting but there just could have been some roaming hands and a not inconsiderable amount of dishevelment.

 

* * *

 

Emma opened the door to a not entirely sheveled Laura and Jubilee.

What they saw gave them questions, many, many questions.

 

Shogo was being held by Gabby and dressed all in white. And he wasn’t dirty. He wasn’t just not dirty, the white was immaculate, perfect, the platonic ideal of pristine white. This was Jubilee’s son and she had no idea how that was possible.

 

Gabby was now blonde. A perfect white blonde. With ice blue fingernails (and claws, but they weren’t on show). Also she was wearing a basque.

 

There were words, there had to be words, there should have been words, but all the words had all fled.

 

Emma shifted her position slightly, put an imperious look on her face and a little husk in her voice (as in she had a slightly husky voice, not that she swallowed a little bit of Paige).

“Jubilation, you do realise that your thoughts are just as loud now as they were when you were a teenager?”

 

Jubilee didn’t say anything but her eyes did widen, she did gulp, and she let out a little whine that was almost pitiful.

 

“Like that?” Gabby asked.

 

Emma turned to her with a smile.

“Exactly like that.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> You know, I think I've worked out the perfect way to cultivate an audience.  
> Just make sure that every time you write something new it's in a different fandom!
> 
> Thanks for reading, hope you enjoyed it, please let me know what you think.  
> Comments are appreciated but it's criticism that gets you into Valhalla.


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